Sunday, June 24, 2007

"NASCAR On TNT" Still Tough To Swallow

Things were happening on RaceDay over on SPEED. The fans were surrounding the SPEED stage and into everything that was going on. It looked like the party at Sonoma was in full swing. Then, TNT took to the air...and the party was over.

In the NASCAR on TNT Live! program, host Marc Fein spent his third week trying to stare down Bill Weber, who firmly believes he should be hosting this show. Fein sat on the spinning stage with Weber and Wally Dallenbach. This week, with Kyle Petty racing, Larry McReynolds joined the panel.

Once again, even though Weber hosts the next pre-race show...there he was on the set. TNT had two hosts, and the discomfort was again obvious. Fein is a smooth professional announcer who is not NASCAR-savvy. Weber just stares at him, oblivious to the camera. Dallenbach and Larry Mac fulfill designated roles, but Weber does not.

Fein was forced to include Weber in the panel discussions, as if Weber had put on his "expert" hat and was letting Fein hold his "anchor" hat. This could not have been more uncomfortable. Anytime Weber answered a question from Fein, he stared directly at him while hunched over the counter and leaning forward. There was such a weird dynamic in place, it rivaled NASCAR Countdown on ESPN2.

The absence of Kyle Petty was felt deeply. Even though Kyle appeared pre-race, the dynamic of Weber alone with Dallenbach was not working. Moving Larry McReynolds to the booth would have been a positive step for this broadcast. He often interrupted from the infield with information that Weber and Dallenbach should have been providing. TNT needs a crew chief in the booth.

Marty Snider has been having a tough time this season being back on TV. Last week, he continually interrupted Dale Junior and Rick Hendrick during an interview he was conducting. This week, he used a trip to Sonoma's wine country to make fun of both drivers and the TNT announcers. This TNT "inside joke" business is ridiculous. When Snider sat down with Junior Johnson this week, Junior barely got a full sentence out. Dale Carnegie is calling Snider's name, with an emphasis on...listening.

Weber returned to the anchor position for the Countdown to Green, and used so many puns in his opening, it made even the most veteran fans cringe. Enough already, we know you can write and use big words. How about some information? Thankfully, Kyle Petty checked in live from the track and summed up the news of the day.

The TNT set is barren, and even more so when Weber is alone or with Dallenbach. Weber introduced a profile of Juan Pablo Montoya, which featured profanity that was beeped out, but clearly could be understood. This should have been removed by TNT, and was left in on purpose. An amateur move. A classy guy like Matt Yocum, who was voicing over the feature, should not have to be associated with that type of content.

To be fair, TNT was saddled with a consistently boring race on a race track that NASCAR should not visit. These big COT cars were horrible on the road course, and even worse on TV. With only Weber and Dallenbach in the booth, Larry Mac feeling under the weather, and no support from Marc Fein except his deep voice, this broadcast was in trouble from the word "go."

Other networks would search for a story, maybe feature the "foot cam," or focus on using the in-car cameras extensively because of the shifting and endless driver concentration. TNT did not, and this lead to a lot of "dead air" where no one was talking. Often times, Weber would yell out the name of the pit road reporter when a car came into the pits. That was incredibly annoying, and the pit reporters thought so.

As if things could not get worse, the race turned into nothing more than a gas war. No one was "really" racing, no one was pushing the limit, and no one was doing anything but putting NASCAR fans to sleep nationwide. The TNT crew got its only spark of life from Kyle Petty, and its only knowledge from Larry McReynolds. The rest of the bunch had long since lapsed into in-fighting and disorder.

By the end of the race, the on-air crew had stopped communicating. The pit road reporters has just had it. Kyle Petty was nowhere to be found. Larry Mac's voice was gone, and we were left with Dallenbach and Weber. Time-and-time again, Weber said that Montoya could not make it on gas. But, he never explained why Montoya was racing so hard for the lead if he was about to run out of gas. It made no sense.

Montoya, of course, did not run out of fuel. Weber was wrong, the pit reporter was wrong, what they had told viewers as "fact" was wrong. Somehow, strangely, it did not make a difference. TNT never showed the top ten cars finish. They went to commercial while first time winner Montoya made his victory lap. They never told us who ran out of gas, and wrapped-up a confusing race with a confusing close.

There are only three more races in the TNT package. With Kyle Petty returning next week for the New Hampshire race, things have to get better. When Larry Mac has his full voice, and Kyle Petty adds the spark in the booth, the coverage is very different. Perhaps TNT might consider adding McReynolds in the booth, and moving Dallenbach to the infield stage with Marc Fein. This would put one driver and one crew chief in the booth, and one driver available in the infield as needed.

This TNT effort so far has proven to be a clash of egos, and really has moved the fans to DirecTV, Pay-Per-View, and online broadcasts. Hopefully, Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds can help this network get back on track next week. With all due respect, Sonoma was a poor effort in all areas, and TNT knows it.

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46 comments:

Nice post, as usual. What I don't understand, given NASCAR's penchant for total control,is why they allow the networks to use non-NASCAR approved announcers. I agree with everything you say...the ESPN wise-ass announcer drives me away from the broadcast, and onto TrackPass....but, wait a minute, maybe that's what NASCAR wants.

Once again you write about exactly what my wife and I said sitting at home today watching the TNT shows. The entire show was completely boring. While the Junior interview could have been great, it wasn't because of Snider and the way it was edited. It was all over the place. The Snider bit with the pictures was dumb. The JPM feature was decent but again I agree about the curse word being kept in. Novice producer I assume. But then you have to ask, where is the senior or coord producer that stands up and says no, cut that out. Keep up the good work John.

I miss the Fox broadcasts already.Maybe NASCAR or the FCC should give a penalty to TNT for dropping the F*** bomb on a sunday afternoon. I actually think the hype of having Kyle broadcast from his car was a joke. I think they could have somehow had that better organized if they were going to talk it up so much. Also, I know why there will be no commercials during the Daytona race coming up, It's because they got them all in today! Finally, thank goodness for NASCAR.com to get the scoop and standings at the end of the race.

This just appears to be a 3 hour promo for TNT's prime time shows. They showed nothing but the top 3 cars for the last 40 laps of the race. No through the field, no updates on road ringers. Nothing! The announcers and director act like this is something they "have to do" but don't want to. They all sounded like they couldn't wait for this race to end so they could collect their check and go home. There were no answers to pit strategy questions and TNT didn't even try to create a story around anything. And they didn't have the courtesy to show us results at the end of the race. Just horrible!!

bill weber is not a play by play guy. i think he could do some great features, but he should not be calling a race. constantly makes mistakes, points out things that don't need to be pointed out and misses other important points.

wally is OK. i'd be willing to give him more time, he's just paired with someone who brings him down right now.

i really like larry mac. he's got great enthusiasm and relates well to those who are less tech savy. he's a good ambassador for the sport.

however, TNT made a HUGE mistake today with letting that "F" fly over the air. how in the world can you let that happen while doing a replay from 2 minutes earlier???? i know things are said in the "heat of the battle" but they did kyle petty a huge disservice today.

and please don't let marty snider do anymore package interviews. he's good as a pit reporter but should not be in the features.

I have to disagree about the race being a bore. TNT's coverage of the field is the problem. On HotPass they knew that JPM had enough fuel. Watching him move up the grid was great. I switched between him, Said and Stewart. There was plenty of action but TNT doesn't know how to show it.

It was a nasty show. I'm glad I missed most of the pre-race crap on TNT. As far as the race itself it was terrible. I liked Kyle's segments from the car, but felt short changed for the amount of hype that TNT put behind it. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the technical side of recording Kyle's comments. But where was the substance?

These announcers obviously do not feel any kind of solidarity or team spirit. Webber really needs to take some time off and see a therapist about his prima donna attitude. I think you are really seeing why Alan Bestwick was kicked to pit road on NBC/TNT before; it was Webber's terrible attitude about not having the show revolve around him.

The sad thing is I do not think that TNT cares. They have their money from their advertisers and really do not care that people are muting the broadcast and listening to the radio or internet sources. And I wonder if ESPN is going to have the same attitude. People are going to watch because really what choice do they have for the visuals without spending 50 or 100 bucks.

As far as them bleeping curse words and FCC penalties, TNT and other cable networks are not subject to FCC regulation on "indecency". They do it as a service to their viewers. They are not broadcasting over open airwaves like terrestrial TV and radio and do not have to live by the somewhat subjective language rules of the FCC. I'm sure NASCAR would have something to say about it, but they would not be subject to any FCC fines if they allowed a curse word to slip out. I agree that it was bush league. But hey, this sport's characters are all so sanitized now for the most part maybe TNT felt the need to leave it in to add some color, no mater how weak of an attempt it was.

The quality of the broadcast by all networks has been lacking. TNT has their dueling host and general feeling of most people just phoning it in so they can get home. ESPN has a dose of smarmy elitist attitude that they bring from their mix of radio personalties who scream and yell their opinions while insulting the people that are the classic core of the sport and their parade of ignorant tv and sports personalities who do not have a history in the sport. Both of these broadcast do a disservice to the NASCAR fans who are generally pretty savvy about what is going on, even with the COT being introduced this year. Of all the broadcast this year, Fox generally has had the better coverage without insulting the fans most (see: Hollywood Hotel) of the time.

Of all the broadcast this weekend the Busch series on ESPN Saturday night with Alan Bestwick was by far the best. His voice is classic and soothing. Much like Ron Franklin calling College Football on Saturday nights; a presence that ESPN could use carry and solidify their franchise coverage.

I love your blog and it has become one of my daily reads. Your insight is very welcome to someone who grew up watching coverage on ESPN and TNN. Thank you for sharing your opinions on the NASCAR broadcast.

Biffle and Bowyer finish in the top 5 but it's almost like they were never in the race. I barely recall hearing their names.I too was amazed that they didn't even show the finishing order when the race ended.

Kyle reporting from the car was a dud, not because of him, but it's unrealistic to have a driver as reporter.

As a new fan of NASCAR this year, I still get confused about pitting and where cars end up in the field after they pit, but even moreso in a race like this. I really don't get why this race specifically is all about fuel mileage and it wasn't explained in any detail. I also wanted to better understand who was gambling on fuel and made it, particulary the top 10 group. Clearly J. Gordon and Stewart didn't gamble, but did all the top 5 gamble? I kept wondering how Harvick, Biffle, and Bowyer finished so high when they weren't even talked about for most of the race.

Here in the UK we get the NASCAR broadcast on NASN. So when the US goes to commercial we get left with a locked camera or in-car shot. Occasionally this also gives us some audio bonuses when they leave the mikes open in the booth.

At Sonoma we had Weber complaining because his scoring monitor was several laps behind the action and demanding that they get this "stuff" out before next week and replace it with an abacus. Meanwhile Wally appeared to be using a mild expletive, but maybe it was just my hearing.

The lack of an end of race run down of positions was even more frustrating for me as on NASN we didn't even get the graphic showing the finishing positions. But then we didn't get any graphics at all for the first half of the race. Still it's an improvement over races earlier in the season which were just cut off in the last few laps beacause they ran late.

Perhaps the Daly Planet could start directing some of it's venom to NASN, to get us UK NASCAR fans a better deal.

You have to wonder if the race was really as boring as it appeared on TV, or TNT just managed to miss the boat entirely. After a huge pre race hype about the #24 and 48 cars starting at the back of the field, did fans get to watch them drive forward? No. The cardinal sin, when finishing order hinged on gas mileage, was that TNT had NO coverage of the order, or who made it on gas. Ridiculous. This is the 'exciting racing' we can expect with the COT? I see lots of Sunday afternoon naps in my future.

It still pains me that we only see 2 cars finish the race, and now - we don't even EVER know how the finishing order is! What?!?! We watch for 5-6 hours just to see who came in first and second??? That was just plain stupid. Maybe on Fox we didn't get to see them cross the finish line, but at least they did put up the finishing order!

Great column. Bill Webber should go the way, hopefully, of DW. Marty Snider is insecure and lacks depth. If NASCAR would form one announcing team. Make sure Kyle Petty and Larry Mac are involved. Bill Webber is probably the worst of all of them. He does not know as much as he thinks and is weak, weak, weak. A pro like Allen Bestwick would really improve that team.

I can't stand DW's ham-it-up style, Larry Mac's slaughter of the English language drives me nuts, but the thing I hate most about any NASCAR telecast during the season is Weber hollering through his nose, "MATT!"

(This is the same classless guy who, at a media awards dinner about 20 years ago, picked up his award, then led his "posse" out of the restaurant while the rest of the ceremony continued. Hairspray must be the only thing that keeps this guy's head from exploding.)

At least they could have checked in with Kyle one last time to ask how his race went (I'm assuming he ran out of gas on the last lap since he finished 39th). I wonder how many other cars ran out of gas on the last laps...thanks to TNT, we never found out.

TNT's coverage left a lot to be desired but, we should expect that from the same team that was on NBC/TNT for the last TV contract. Unfortunately they seem to be working to make it worse. A question was asked as to whether the race was really as boring as the TV coverage made it out to be. I would guess that it was not based on my own experiences. Many times I have attended a race live and upon returning home, heard from people who told me how boring the race had been. When I first heard comments like this, they surprised me as I had enjoyed the races live. After a while, however, I got used to these comments since I came to realize that the networks don't show us a true account of the on track action, focusing either on the race leader or a particular "favorite".The networks along with NASCAR themselves continually tell us that they always make an effort to "give the fans what they want".Does TNT really think they gave us what we wanted at the end of yesterday's race? Maybe they should poll the fans as to what they want to see after the winner crosses the finish line.A) A closeup of the winner's window net in the up position while he takes his cool down lap.B) The winning driver's pit crew celebrating--it's always the same, isn't it?C) CommercialsD) The rest of the field---or at least the top ten(or 12?--or 15?)---crossing the finish line.

I know the answer would be unanimous among the dozens of fans I have spoken to about this.

TNT bungled the close of their braodcast big-time yesterday. They showed only the first two cars finish the race and went to commercial. They didn't fill us in on who ran out of gas and who made it. They didn't even tell us the fate of Kyle Petty, who was part of their broadcast, though they did show a brief shot of him heading down pit road. Shouldn't Kyle be given a chance to sum up the race from his perspective? Could they interview more than just a few drivers? Could Kyle interview some of his fellow competitors?The biggest blunder, however, was their failure to give the finishing order of the just completed race. They can not even use the excuse that it hadn't been sorted out yet, as several websites had the results before TNT went off the air. This is completely inexcusable! With 43 competitors involved, the race fans want to know more than just who won the race. Most of us would like to see the entire finishing order at least once before they go off the air.I personally prefer the "old" way of doing a race broadcast with a much shorter pre-race show and a longer post-race wrap-up focusing on interviews with as many drivers as possible as soon as they climb out of their cars and before they shower & change clothes. But, what do I know? I'm only a fan & apparently the networks know what I want better than I do.

TNT made critical mistakes not showing the results at the end of the race...not explaining why drivers like Bobby Labonte or their own Kyle Petty finished 33rd and 39th after being in the Top 15 the latter part of the race. Of course, TNT doesn't want to concentrate on drivers who are not a part of Hendrick/Roush/Gibbs/RCR. No follow-up on DEI driver Martin Truex, after having strong finishes the last few weeks, you didn't even know he was on the track. As for Petty's f-bomb, it was taped and no excuse for airing that, although Petty apologized once he was informed of the incident and was professional as always.

Other rants: Concentrated on Montoyo crossing the finish line and didn't show anyone else crossing. Only interview big names that finish in the Top 10 following the race - no interview on Boris Said or his continued accomplishments with the smallest operation in NASCAR. No mention on the absence of Mark Martin/the impact of Regan Smith driving the road course and how Martin is a master of road courses.

For a network that claims "We Know Drama", they sure struggle finding a storyline during their race coverage.

TNT's coverage of the race was terrible. You only heard about certain drivers all day, you never heard about Bowyer or Biffle who had top 5 finishes and I'm not even a fan of theirs. After the race I was waiting for TNT to post the finish so I could text my friend (who was stuck working) and much to my suprise they never gave it. I don't mind the announcers, but I did miss Kyle Petty not being there. I might not always like what Kyle has to say or agree with it, but I do appreciate his honesty very much. Here's to hoping TNT can improve in the next 3 weeks. I personally can't wait until ABC/ESPN starts. I have missed them.

I don't watch non-Speed TV pre-race shows so I can't comment on that but:

-Mark Fein is a waste.-Wally is not fit to do this work.-Bill Weber is all ego.-Ralph Sheehen(sic) is annoying and the entire pit crew is unused.-The HD broadcast is pitiful AND there seems to be an Audio sync problem. At least thru Comcast

Did TNT even give a final standings rundown at the end of the race? And how do you let a driver drop an inappropriate word over his radio ona REPLAY of an incident? How do you not catch that and edit it out?

Does NASCAR have a person's whose job is to watch the broadcasts of the races and make sure the sport is being promoted?

John, I really appreciate your column but maybe you need to list NASCAR's contact information so we can contact them directly.

I have to disagree about needing a crew chief in the booth. ESPN for years had a play by play man (Bob Jenkings) and two former drivers (Ned Jarrett/Benny Parsons) and their broadcasts were GREAT.

I watched the 95 Sears Point race the other day and the announce team BROUGHT THE RACE TO LIFE FOR THE FANS. They helped make it exciting.

What all of these networks needs to do is find analysts that are GOOD GUYS, RESPECTED BY THE TEAMS, FUN-LOVING, UNDERSTATED and most importantly are willing to PROMOTE THE SPORT AND NOT THEIR INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS ALL THE TIME.

Instead, we have Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, and Wally Dallenbach. All of them are very opinionated, have huge egos, and are constantly telling you what they would do.

LISTEN UP NETWORKS, NASCAR FANS WERE IN LOVE WITH THE OLD BROADCAST TEAM ON ESPN. YOU NEED TO MODEL YOUR TEAM AFTER THAT CREW AND NASCAR FANS WILL LOVE YOU FOR IT!

43 cars...there are 43 cars in the field!!!!!! Oh, and Jeff Green is clearly on fire and unable to make it back to his pit....Kasey Kahne's pit crew VAULTS over the wall with fire extinguishers, and TNT switches to another shot!!!!!! Plus, I am totally SICK of "Born to Be Wild", use some different bumper music! Now TNT is saying that the f-bomb could have been any of 3 different drivers, yeah right, either way, considering it was a REPLAY, why in the world did it get aired?!?

cI e-mailed TNT about not showing how everyone finished My husband and I were upset about the lousy coverage. Keep up the good work, because maybe ESPN will realize we want Bestwick for the Cup races as well as the Busch races.

I am still confused why NASCAR allows 2 prerace shows to be on at the same time. We all know NASCAR Raceday is a better show but TNT deliberatly schedules its show to overlap by 30 minutes each week.They should forget about the pre race and only start the Countdown to Green when NASCAR Raceday is over. I agree whith all you said and actually think Weber needs to find something els to do. PLUG ALAN BESTWICK BACK IN PLEASE!!!!!

I normally can deal with bad TV coverage, but the TNT broadcast was horrible. They totally missed the racing stories.

How do you not have cameras on Montoya, Gordon and Stewart as they are moving up from the back of the pack. By watching the TNT broadcast between the 3 of them they only passed about 6 cars total. That is amazing how Gordon can move from 41 to somewhere in the top 10 by not passing a bunch of cars.

By the way I can't tell you where Gordon and Stewart finished, because they didn't show the results. :(

They totally screwed up the stories after the last round of pit stops. They were talking about Robby Gordon as if he was the first of the cars that pitted, but Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart were way ahead of Robby.

Then when JPM and Jimmie Johnson were battling they were too busy talking about a shifter knob on the 11. They should have held back on the shifter story and covered the racing. They only showed you the bumb between the two of them. I counted 3 times where they swapped position. Naturally I didn't see the passes on TV, but when they panned out I noticed that the postions were swapped.

TNT needs to figure out sometimes you have to find the race within the race and cover it. To be honest I think the TNT crew was confused, and Larry Mac was too sick to straighten them out.

Bill Webber is a great writer and reader. He is a terrible play by play man.Kyle Petty is the best commentator among the ex drivers. Rusty Wallace is the worst.Kyle is better than Darrel Waltrip because Kyle does not make everything about him.Darrel has yet to realize that the current drivers are the stars.TNT missed an excellent opportunity when they did not ask Ken Schrader to work the booth in Kyle's absence.I not only miss Bennie, I still miss Neal Bonnett.

NASCAR wonders why the TV ratings are dropping and don't think it's a big deal. It's obvious to me that they're not watching the same thing we're all watching. I doubt if they're watching it at all.

I happen to be one of the oddballs who likes road course racing and the coverage we got from the Totally Nothing Nitwts (TNT) put me to sleep. I know there was a race on sometime during that time period, but I think it was a race to show commercials.

Unless the broadcast crew starts taking the job seriously (and they won't) we'll continue to have to suffer through this same garbage for the next 3 weeks. At least they got rid of the "toilet seat" graphics they used in previous years.

Did anyone notice the persistent sound of the wind blowing through the mic on TNT? Very annoying - certainly with today's technology that can be dealt with. Overall, TNT is not cutting it. We can only hope that ESPN is using their Busch Series telecasts as a training ground for their big return to Cup racing very soon. They too have some work to do.

I think I enjoyed the race more than you seemed to, but it was in spite of the announcers. I was looking forward to watching Robby Gordon and Juan PM live up to their potential, and it happened and almost happened. JPM did some serious racing - the only driver he may have mishandled was Kurt Busch, but nobody likes the Busch bros. Not showing who finished past second place was a major screw up - so it fit right in with the rest of the pathetic broadcast.

I miss fox deeply. TNT never really show any racing. They stay on the front pack or the leader, and go over the same stories over and over and over. I watch Nascar to see racing and with tnt there's never any racing. I cant stand TNT. 3 more races to go with them. I hope ESPN can do a better job.

Enjoyed the post. Since I happened to be AT the race, I won't catch the TNT coverage till it runs in reruns later this week, but let me tell you it could not have been any worse than the play by play of the on track announcers who must have used every single cliche in the book - the clincher of which was a referral to the yellow flags being like California poppies. Some should have told that jerk that they are orange... so it seems no matter what you have to listen to the only decent coverage was Speeds. And the trackside show was a gas, as usual.

I slightly disagree about the fact that it was not exciting. If you were a Montoya fan it was exciting because of the fact that we had no idea if he would make the rest of the race, let alone stay in 1st place

Other than that I agree with what a lot has been posted, thankfully it's almost over.

i don't really care the F word slipped out,after all it is cable and it's nice to see some emotion insted of the PC we get all the time. as for the coverage,well it was bad but so was the race.i'm not a fan of road courses or the COT.but who ever sold that thing to GM,Dodge,TOY,and ford,could join my sales team anyday.it seems to me the races just get worse every week because all anyone want to do is make the stupid chase.they ruined the Bristol nite race along with Richmond cause everyone just plays it safe.oh by the way did i say the COT is terriable,leave it to king Byran to shove more junk down our throats and turn NA$CAR into what indy racing is today.wait and see,on the good side tickets are easier to get,so in one way i should thank him.maybe if he gives Cali. another race they will fly me there and give me a ticket.well i still wouldn't go.i'm sure a wine cork pop mite interupt mt nap.

I agree about TNT coverage of the races. It is horrible!! I am not a fan of road courses, the COT and I cannot stand Weber! I hate listening to him talk, his comments are stupid and lame. I am glad that we only have to put up with him for three more weeks (I hope!) TNT will ruin the Pepsi 400 this year. I wish we had gotten tickets for this years race instead of last year's race! The worse part about TNT coverage (besides Weber) is we don't know who finishes where until we get on the internet, listen to MRN (or other stations) or turn on Speed channel. I want to see the FINISHING ORDER! If I am going to invest my valuable time to watch a race than I expect the network to show me the race and who finishes where! I don't think that is too much to expect! If this trend continues than I will just watch the race replay on Speed on Thursday afternoons. We are being screwed by this amateur coverage.

I have just read every comment on here and it all seems to indicate that people hate TNT’s race coverage along with Bill Weber. Is it that positive comments are being censored? No, I really think that people in general DO hate watching a race on TNT and really hate listening to Bill Weber make mistake after mistake during the broadcast. I really don’t understand why they don’t bring back Alan Bestwick as the main announcers.

The rules for sending posts are on the right side of the site. The only posts that are omitted are the ones where people are so mad at the networks they wind-up using foul language. This is an opinion based forum, not a "true or false" hard news site. Your opinion is always welcome. Thanks for taking the time to send it to us.